We Can Rule Together / Western Animation

• The Evilutionary Biologist Dr. X offers this to Alex in the series finale of Action Man (2000), since they're both in possession of the superhuman AMP ability, and are thus both part of the "Neo-human race", which he thinks they should nurture together. Alex just retorts that X is a complete lunatic before sending him on a one-way ride into deep space.
• The Lich from Adventure Time attempts this during the season 4 finale episode "The Lich". Finn refuses... which is exactly what he wanted, as Finn shattering The Enchiridion grants him access to The Multiverse.
• In Alfred J. Kwak, Dolf twice offers this to Alfred, first when he's looking for money to fund a political party, second when he's found the money elsewhere and is already in the process of seizing power in the entire country. After the second time, Alfred himself inverts it when he attempts to convince the Card-Carrying Villain to stop his evil plans and immediately step down. Dolf just summarily imprisons him.
• Amphibia: In "Prison Break", Sasha accepts Grime's offer to be his Dragon instead of his prisoner, in exchange for his aid finding her friends.
• Arcane: Silco extensively tries to reason with Vander into joining him after his capture, rationalizing they now have the strength to topple Piltover. However, after Powder blows up his HQ, he angrily orders Deckard to kill Vander.
• Occurs frequently in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but what would you expect when the Big Bad is voiced by Luke Skywalker, himself?
  • Azula makes such an offer to Zuko — a chance to help her capture Ba Sing Se and kick ass together as siblings, even though the latter was a Fire Nation fugitive at the time and was just starting a new, normal life within the city. In a rare exception, he joins her, and they do indeed kick ass as evil siblings, even conquering a country in a few hours. However, he quits later.
  • Azula later tries to use it as a pickup line in the Beach Episode combined with flaming hands, but that doesn't work out as well for her.
  • Over 100 years previously, Fire Lord Sozin used the same pickup line on Avatar Roku for them to use their positions as Fire Lord and Avatar to forge the four nations into one great empire, in the name of their childhood friendship. Roku declined, and Sozin got pissed as he viewed it as a personal betrayal of said friendship.
  • Mai's father, Ukano, continues the tradition in the comic Rebound when he tries to persuade Mai to join his movement to overthrow Zuko now that she's broken up with him.
  • Happens again in The Legend of Korra. Hiroshi Sato attempts this on his daughter Asami so they can take out all the Benders. It looks like she accepts, but then she attacks him.
• Knight Templar Lyle "Lock-Up" Bolton makes this offer to Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, arguing that Batman can go on catching the criminals while Lock-Up keeps them secured in a personal prison that's not made of cardboard.
  • Poison Ivy says this to Batgirl -or, rather Barbara Gordon- during their debut in The Batman.
  • Poison Ivy does this again to a filler episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In that episode, she conquers Gotham and offers to spare Batman if he agrees to marry her and rule alongside her. He refuses both offers.
• Big City Greens: In the climax of "Coffee Quest", Chip Whistler tries to persuade Gloria into working with him at Wholesome Foods, because city people should stick together. Naturally, she refuses on account of she isn't from the city like Cricket, but from the suburbs. In a case of irony, she actually does end up working at Wholesome Foods in "Chipocalypse Now" after Big Coffee was destroyed, though it doesn't last long.
• Big Hero 6: The Series: This is what Obake tries to convince Hiro to do in the Season 1 finale, but he refuses. Obake thinks he'll change his mind after his plan to destroy San Fransokyo goes through. Unlikely.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "The Conqueror", Gaia's Evil Counterpart Zarm arrives on the scene and manages to corrupt most of the team by pretending benevolence and offering them power upgrades while messing with their minds. After Gaia manages to bring them back to their senses (partially thanks to Zarm upsetting a silo on her), he tries to reassert his influence to no avail. After Kwame, Linka and Gi have torn off their gauntlets, Zarm makes a last-ditch effort to keep control of Wheeler, promising to make him ruler of the world and following it up with a burst of Hypnotic Eyes just to make sure. It fails miserably; he's barely finished before Wheeler replies he doesn't want the kind of world Zarm is offering and throws his own gauntlet far away.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • When Sector V traveled to the Mirror Universe, Negative Numbuh Four offers Sector V a chance to become his bodyguard. They flat out refuse. ( Actually, only one of them could be his bodyguard, and the rest would be sent to the broccoli mines in a very there can be only one-esque fashion. They refuse because they don't want to sell out one of their teammates in an exchange for their own safety.)
    • A straight example of the Trope was made in the same episode by Negative Numbuh Three towards Numbuh Four, saying she didn't like him (a subtle clue that the real Numbuh Three did like him, as she's her complete opposite) but she liked his guts. His reaction to her proposal for him to betray his friends and join her side? He clocked her in the face and said through clenched teeth, "You must be from another world..."
  • Also, Stickybeard made this offer to Numbuh Five the first time they met, saying he liked her spunk. Although she turned the offer down, he did seem to consider her a Worthy Opponent in future episodes.
• Danny Phantom:
  • Before Motive Decay set in in Season 3, Vlad Plasmius held a similar obsession for Danny, offering him partnership from Day 1: "Think about the things I could show you. The doors I could open for you. You, Danny Phantom, and I, Vlad Plasmius... together, we could rule!"
  • This is also said word-for-word by Sam when she's mind-controlled into becoming The Dragon for a plant-based ghost, complete with Stripperiffic Poison Ivy-ish outfit.
• During one episode of Darkwing Duck, villain Morgana teams up with a creature called Nodoff - he gives her sleeping sand, she puts people to sleep; he controls their dreams so Morgana can rob them. When Darkwing stumbles onto the plot, he tries to convince her that Nodoff is not to be trusted, prompting Nodoff to say that together, they would have the city's riches. Interesting in that he was offering her what she was already doing with him. But this time, (though the riches clearly tempt her) she sides with Darkwing.
• Dr. Klotzenstien makes this offer to Quailman on Doug.
• Subverted in an episode of Duck Dodgers. Dodgers joins the Green Lantern Corps after getting Hal Jordan's ring due to a dry cleaner mishap. He ends up as the last one standing against Sinestro, who has subdued the rest of the Corps. When Sinestro offers him the chance to join with him, Dodgers replies, "Yeah, sure, why not?" Sinestro suddenly launches into a tirade ("You fool! You defy my generous offer?", etc.) before stopping and asking if he actually agreed. Sinestro is then disappointed because he didn't get the chance for his angry rejection speech. Being a good sport, Dodgers lets him give it anyway. And this incident subverts the trope in another way: by showing the folly of forging an alliance with the kind of fickle character who would agree to switch sides at the drop of a hat. Duck Dodgers has a sudden change of heart and frees the other Corps members when Sinestro isn't expecting it.
• The Fairly OddParents!
  • The episode "End of the Univers-ity", Dark Laser tries to corrupt Timmy into joining his team by giving him a dark suit that begins to take over Timmy's personality. Fortunately, Timmy snaps out of it at the last second when he was about to destroy Earth and rebels against Dark Laser (albeit he keeps the suit anyway).
  • In his first appearance, Crocker makes this offer to Chester and AJ in exchange for bringing him Timmy's dinosaur, which will be proof that he has fairies. It doesn't work.
  • Anti-Cosmo also wanted Timmy to join him in taking over the universe, as he desires an evil godchild to mold in his image.
• In Gargoyles, Matt Bluestone nearly ruined his career trying to expose the Illuminati. The Illuminati in this series is very real, and eventually became impressed by Matt's determination. They make him a member partly because he'd be a valuable asset and partly to keep him in check.
  • Demona also tries to use this on Goliath at the end of the series premiere, stating, "Together, you and I can make a new world for our kind."
• Attempted by Bill in Gravity Falls to Ford, who rejects his offer and gets turned into a golden backscratcher for his troubles.
• In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Eris tries this with Mandy, and has her considering taking the offer until she slips up and says "You'll be the second most powerful person in the universe."
• In one episode of Invader Zim, Zim outsmarts a mall security guard who then declares his respect for Zim's skill and offers him a partnership - "Together, we can rule the mall!" Zim declines the offer - obviously because he plans to rule the Earth.
• In a rare villain-to-villain example, Lex Luthor offers Brainiac to work together in Justice League Unlimited. Interestingly enough, at that moment Luthor is completely at Braniac's mercy but still manages to convince him.
• Protoman does this several times throughout the course of the Ruby-Spears Mega Man series; it's more "we can level this city and many more together", though, considering that Protoman's The Dragon.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: Jenny gets this offer repeatedly from Cluster Prime, which is a pretty nice place...unless you oppose enslaving the human race, which of course X-J9 does.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode Twilights Kingdom Part 1, this is how Tirek sways Discord to his side. He claims to offer something far more valuable than friendship: freedom. In Part 2, however, he decides that I Can Rule Alone, and drains Discord of his magic once he has outlived his usefulness.
• The Owl House: When sisters Edalyn and Lilith Clawthorne were children they dreamed of growing up to join the Emperor’s Coven, the elite of the magical world. Lilith not only joined but eventually became the leader of the Coven, while Eda went on to become a covenless witch and outlaw. Despite everything that’s happened since then, Lilith still loves Eda and wants her to join the Coven so they can be on the same side again and The Emperor can remove the curse Lilith place on her.
• One episode of Phineas and Ferb has Dr. Doofenshmirtz trying to turn Perry into his ally by zapping him with a Turn-Everything-Evil-Inator.
  • Doofenshmirtz actually succeeds in a later episode with an -inator that makes Perry think he's his new butler...until Perry reads the mirror-phased message "I fight evil" which he wrote on his chest before he was brainwashed.
  • In Phineas and Ferb "Tales from the Resistance", Charlene-2 corners Candace-2 after defeating her in a bo staff fight and offers her the position to be leader of her cyborg army. Unfortunately for Charlene-2, the animal cyborgs (save for Peter the Pandaborg) broke free from their brainwashing and turn against the 2nd Doofenshmirtz family.
  • Also in Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars, the Brainwashed and Crazy Darth Ferb makes this offer to Phineas. Phineas laughs at first until Ferb proves that he is serious by drawing his lightsaber at him.
• When Bubbles of the The Powerpuff Girls thinks she is Mojo Jojo and manages to successfully defeat her sisters in a fight, the real Mojo suggests this to Bubbles before she declines, going on a long speech in a manner similar to himself. Keep in mind she refused not because he's evil, but because she thinks she's the real Mojo.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power flips the trope's usual setup on its head. Instead of the Big Bad offering world domination to the hero, Scorpia offers this to Catra when The Horde sends them on a suicide mission to the Crimson Waste. As Scorpia points out, in less than a day, Catra has managed to drive out the major gang leader and take over herself. She suggests that they just abandon the Horde, let them believe they died, and live out the rest of their days in the Waste, with Scorpia as Catra's second-in-command. One of the only times this trope is a genuinely heartwarming moment.
  We could, you know... be happy.
  • By other turn, Shadow Weaver says the phrase to Adora as she tries to talk her into returning to the Horde in “The Shadows of Mystacor”. It doesn’t work, of course.
• The Spectacular Spiderman:
  • Tombstone offers Spider-Man a job, with a condition of agreement being that Spidey refrain from fighting crime at Tombstone's leisure. Spidey is tempted, until he remembers what happened the last time he turned a blind eye.
  • Tombstone's challenger for the position of "Big Man of Crime", the Green Goblin, proposes to Spidey that the two of them rule New York together. Since Tombstone was present at the time he may have just been slighting him, and/or testing Spidey (as well as giving a Shout-Out to the movie).
  • The symbiote also makes this offer while simultaneously trying to drive Peter across the Despair Event Horizon in a Battle in the Center of the Mind, so he'll permanently bond with it. A timely intervention from the spirit of Uncle Ben saves Spidey from "becoming one with the ooze".
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom", Plankton attempts to offer an alliance to the Flying Dutchman by saying when he takes over the world, they'll split it 70-30. The Dutchman's not impressed and turns Plankton into an Igor-like servant.
• The final arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars gives a twist on the franchise's normal use of the trope, in which Maul offers an Enemy Mine to Ahsoka Tano, pointing out that both of them were abandoned by their orders, and now they can strike at Darth Sidious before his plans come to fruition. Ahsoka genuinely considers the idea, as she's recently learned that Sidious is a very real threat, but first she asks why Maul's interested in Anakin Skywalker. Maul's response, that he had foreseen Sidious corrupting Anakin, causes her to reject the offer, believing there's no way her former teacher would turn to the dark side, and therefore whatever else Maul says can't be trusted.
• In Steven Universe's "Alone At Sea", Jasper, suffering from Power High, makes this sort of offer to Lapis:
  Jasper: (Clasps her hands around Lapis' and lands on her knees.) Let's be Malachite again. (Dramatic Thunder)
  Lapis: Why... would you want that?
  Jasper: I was wrong about fusion. You made me understand! Malachite was bigger and stronger than both of us! We could fly!
  Lapis: I was terrible to you. I liked taking everything out on you. I needed to. I-I hated you. It was bad!
  Jasper: It'll be better this time. I've changed. You've changed me. I'm the only one who can handle your kind of power. Together, we'll be unstoppable!
• Superman: The Animated Series:
  • In "The Last Son of Krypton", after making it plain to this mysterious alien that he runs Metropolis, Luthor notes that he often wonders if he should be satisfied with "just" one city and that between the two of them they could basically run the world. Naturally, Superman doesn't bite. However in "Brave New Metropolis" we get a look at what things would be like had he accepted.
  • Darkseid delivers one of these to a weakened Superman in "Apokolips...Now". It even plays out at the top of a tall mountain, paralleling the Biblical temptation of Jesus.
• In the second episode of the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, Shredder makes this offer to the Turtles, on the grounds that his having accidentally been responsible for their mutation (in the course of betraying and attempting to poison their sensei) means they are destined to work with him. The response:
  Raphael: Does the phrase "Go suck a lemon" hold any meaning for ya?
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • Slade's hidden motive all along was revealed to be just to get Robin to join him. The Diabolical Mastermind finally resorted to outright blackmail — apprenticeship in exchange for his friends' lives. At least, he used the word "apprentice," but what he really seemed to want was a son:
    Slade: Who knows? I may even become like a father to you.
    Robin: I already have a father.
  • Considering that in the graphic novels, Slade has three kids - and the two surviving ones are hardly about to send him Father of the Year trophies?
  • Parodied with Killer Moth. When he tries to convince his mutant test subject to obey him instead of being Starfire's pet, he says, "Join me, and together we will... go on a picnic of some sort."
• In Totally Spies! the Great Kandinsky offers this to his grandson in the episode "Do You Believe in Magic?". When it doesn't work he hypnotizes him.
• Transformers: Animated: In "A Fistful of Energon", Lockdown, having a good deal of Villain Respect for Prowl and having worked closely with him during this episode to hunt down Starscream, offers Prowl the chance at the episode's end to leave the Autobots behind and join him as an inter-galactic bounty hunter. Prowl, however, turns the offer down.
• Qilby the Traitor in Wakfu in episode 21 of season 2 makes the offer to Adamai trying to convince him that they should drain the World of Twelve of its wakfu to power up the Zinit for another journey into the cosmos because it's not their world. He's not surprised when Adamai refuses, since Adamai's previous incarnation also refused.
• Winx Club:
  • At the end of Season 3, Valtor makes this offer to Bloom, in an attempt to get her to target the three ancient witches (who have taken control of his body since he failed to do as they had wanted) instead. Bloom refuses, naturally.
  • Midway through Season 4, when it was revealed Morgana and the Warrior Fairies of Earth have grown vengeful against humans losing their belief in them and being locked up for so long, Morgana grants an offer for the Winx and Roxy to join her army and become Warrior Fairies like them. The girls refuse and keep shut, knowing revenge is not the right thing to do, thus Morgana dubs the girls enemies.
• Xiaolin Showdown:
  • In the first Season Finale, Wuya offers this to Raimundo, who's feeling unappreciated... and he accepts, helping her regain her physical form and Take Over the World. He has a change of heart and leaves her in the second season's opening two-parter.
  • Incidentally, this results in Raimundo asking his friends to serve Wuya at his side - he joined her because of his own selfish reasons, but never really wanted to hurt anyone. So when Wuya threatens his friends, the only way he can think of to spare them and keep what Wuya's given him is to pull this trope. They tell him they'd rather kiss the backside of a mule.
  • Chase Young has this as his entire motivation - he knows Omi has the potential to defeat him someday, but also that their combined power would make him invincible. Therefore, he never puts his Evil Plan into motion until Omi is at his side. Throughout season 2, he is shown to be making progress slowly luring Omi to the side of evil, only to use a magic Mirror Morality Machine... but while Omi is under its effects Chase gets him to swear his loyalty, so that when he's snapped out of it, he goes over willingly.

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